A number of viral induced diseases pose serious world-wide health problems for which effective chemotherapeutic agents must be developed. Although many chemotherapeutic agents are available clinically for the treatment of diseases caused by microorganisms (e.g. bacteria), the same cannot be said for viral diseases. At present, only a few effective antiviral nucleosides are known but most of these compounds are useful against only DNA viruses as opposed to RNA viruses.
The search for purine nucleosides with antiviral activity against RNA viruses requires a understanding of the many complex biological pathways involving purine metabolism in mammalian systems as well as some understanding of viral metabolism. It has now been found that strategically functionalized compounds related to natural inosine may be metabolically stable with respect to key mammalian enzymes of purine metabolism but may be phosphorylated by less specific RNA viral enzymes in viral infected cells and thus may inhibit viral replication.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide alkylated inosines, preferably C-2 alkylated inosines which have antiviral activity against certain RNA arboviruses.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for use of alkylated inosine derivatives as antiviral agents.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide an effective and direct route of synthesis of alkylated inosines which allows those to be economically and conveniently available for use in therapeutic treatments against RNA viruses.
A still further objective is to provide therapeutic compositions useful as antivirals for RNA viruses.